MKerr's Healthy Eating Representations

This approach takes me right back to my process modelling days but also my development of schemes of work and lesson planning at the start of my PGCE.

I like this approach and design and therefore feel that the readability and expression of the planned activity is good. From a practical point of view whilst the concept of swim lanes is good I would like to see how this approach would be deployed. If there is a piece of software which could be used to automatically deploy the items in each lane that would be good. As a time poor teacher I would struggle to justify the time if the lanes and shapes are all free hand in PowerPoint for example.

I believe this approach is good at juggling the key constraints we are likely to be faced with and how to manage those in an interdependent way. The approach also forces you to clearly define how these resources are managed and how they dovetail into one another as activity changes.

As teachers we all have a very different approach to planning and my one concern would be that to use this as a 'standard methodology' for planning might not suit all teachers or mediums. In the case of the latter, with my work using something like Storyline to develop an elearning module, I would prefer to adopt a storyboard approach using the slides as a basis for delivery and noting constraints and additional information there. This approaches does focus on a classroom environment making reference to group sizes etc. This would work with online sessions of course but would be largely irrelevant with self learn modules.

Somethings which are missing for me are clear visibility of the activities to the learning outcomes which I think is important in any plan. If this is a standardisation approach I would also like to see space to give evaluation for the plan to evolve with practice.

Reflecting upon my example in 1b I think this approach would be too onerous for my design, there is just too much detail required in the approach to justify spending time on the template. As the project involved a module to be completed individually I would not need the indications of group size or indication of teacher involvement. Similarly with the technology used this would only include reference to the PC or laptop used by the learner involved. As I have explained in my evaluation I would also want to enter more content for the activity and there is little space to do this.

I can see that the chronological order would be of benefit to my design together with allocating timings to each activity. This would help to ensure that the overall timing of the activity was accurate.

e-Design Template

I was drawn to this template simply because this is the driver for me completing this course!

This a very simple approach and I like the grid system which again follows chronologically. It is very clear in the way it moves from one type of learning to another. I like the way that as a teacher you would be able to demonstrate a movement from tutor lead instruction and towards student lead learning just visually by looking at the plan. This of course assumes that the starting point for the process of learning is in the classroom which in many cases it is not. So for example with an embedded eLearning approach in an organisation it is likely that only the first two columns would be relevant. From this point of view I think it lacks some expressiveness.

I would like to see reference to clear learning outcomes to ensure the activities support these, similarly as a working document, whilst you can see the timings for individual activities, I would like to see a running total of time taken as this how I like to assess progress through the session. I would also like to see more fully how the available resources are being used particularly technology resources.

I think the simplicity of the design works well however in so far as completing the template would not be onerous. For example if designing a completely 'self organised learner' module much of the detail of the activity will recorded in the tool being used for design and which facilitates the design process instead of having a separate sheet to record the details.

With regard to 1b I think the template would be useful and a concise record of what needed to be covered complete with timings. The first two columns would be redundant in my example as the module was for a learner to access on line in their own time.

The template used would offer a good overall summary for the activity.